


Writing Sample- Hansini Wasalamudalige

by hawasala



Category: No Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27887689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawasala/pseuds/hawasala





	Writing Sample- Hansini Wasalamudalige

The woman tugged the hood of her floor-length cloak down, making sure that her bangs were hidden from view. Having just landed on the Palaedian peninsula, she thought it important to permit herself a moment of reprieve after her unpleasant weeks at sea- not that the ship she embarked on wasn’t up to standard (quite the contrary, she felt it much more decadent than what was necessary with its rails carved from gold and professional chefs at her beck and call all hours of the day), but because the insurmountable pressure she was under followed her like a thick fog, somehow viscous and making it difficult to breathe. Even though her elder brother had complied with her request that she only needed a small elite team for her mission, his presence and influence loomed over her in the imposing portrait of him that had been hung on the wall of her suite- his teal eyes she felt fall on her form even as she slept- and in the ship’s crew who had showered her with praise and expressions of awe, a constant reminder of her station and how imperative it was that she succeed at her task. The crew meant well, but it still frayed her already threadbare nerves, so the woman was silently relieved when they had left for home after having dropped off her and her two friends at shore. 

Yes, some respite from the constant suffocation was imperative for her to clear her head- to focus on what she needed to do. That was how she found herself pushing the door open to a seedy tavern in the middle of nowhere. The establishment was evidently on the cusp of dilapidation due to years of neglected upkeep- the door had only given way after a particularly harsh shove and the woman had to step over some dislodged floorboards to avoid tripping more than once while faintly noting that the tavern’s intoxicated patrons probably wouldn’t be so lucky. No doubt the Orionese occupation of Palaedia had hit business hard. There were whispers of prior prosperity however- a second story, fully visible from the lower floor, had been built after-the-fact, and the woman spied bottles of quality alcohol lining the shelves, untouched and even more valuable with their age. 

The couple of patrons drinking quietly at the tables on the first floor turned to look at the hooded woman as she made her way to the counter, before quickly losing interest and swivelling back to their beverages. Already the woman felt some of the tension twisting her gut melt away, thankful for the cloak that one of the ship’s crew members had all but shoved into her arms after she asked whether it’d be alright for her to have it. While her brother would say that she should display her superior blood proudly, the woman knew that, sometimes, being covert was necessary. Not that the woman thought that anyone in an establishment such as this would recognise who she was exactly. This wasn’t a knock on their stature or intelligence, but simply, the woman mused, the truth. 

“What do you recommend?” the woman asked the barkeep wiping down the wooden counter. 

The barkeep paused in her task, looking the woman up and down, probably wondering why she was donning such a long, dark cloak in the hot Palaedian heat. Not that the woman could blame her- she was a tinge envious at her thin skirt (or was it a skirt? It looked more like just a piece of floral fabric tied around her waist) and matching blouse which exposed her midriff. She had seen many Palaedian women wear such a style of clothing during her visits. Perhaps her cloak was not as innocuous as she thought and she should invest in something like this instead.

The woman quickly pushed the thought away. Her brother would probably kill her. 

“Well,” the barkeep started, evidently deciding not to question the woman as she pulled a bottle from one of the shelves behind her. “Our in-house special is the Flamin’ Padmadevi- the ‘flamin’ part being that we hit it with a burst of fire before serving. By far our most popular drink.” 

The woman took the bottle from the barkeep after asking if it was okay to do so. Through the transparent glass, it was easy to see the lotus petals dancing around in the amber liquid when she turned the bottle over in her hands. The woman had been under the impression that the Palaedian people were highly reverent of their Goddess- of the deity who supposedly was the mother of all affinities. Naming a drink after her, with the moniker the Flamin’ Padmadevi off all things, was something that the woman didn’t think the pious Palaedians would do. At any rate, if this was a sign of a shift in the collective consciousness, she would be the last to complain. 

“Alright, I’ll take a glass-” 

A loud jeer and a cry of indignation interrupted the woman’s words. Her eyes travelled up the rickety wooden stairs to the establishment’s second floor to source the origin of the noise. A woman, sitting at one side of a table, wore an expression of glee as she turned over the last pair of cards still facing downwards on the table. The man seated opposite her was not as pleased however, his head in his hands as he allowed the other woman to scoop up the pouch of Palaedian currency on his side of the table. 

Even from down below or, more accurately, because she was looking from down below, the woman spotted her nasty trick right away. 

After thanking the barkeep when she handed her her drink, the woman carefully traversed up the near-crumbling steps while channeling her chakra to her fingertips to keep the heat from the beverage from burning her. The woman mused dryly that this was maybe the one instance she was thankful to have the affinity that she did. 

“One more game Anansi! Double or nothing!” the man pleaded to the triumphant gambler, desperately swatting the table with his palms as the woman stepped onto the second floor. She quietly took a seat at the table directly behind the man so that she had a clear view of the pair as she sipped her drink. 

“Well, if that’s what you want, Baethan,” Anansi shook her head and sighed. “I’ll set the cards again.” 

Anansi swiped up the playing cards spread across the table in a single swift motion, before she shuffled them at a speed that didn’t seem humanly possible- her hands a blur as she lapped the cards over each other. The cloaked woman watched closely as Anansi flung each of the forty-four cards back onto the table with such precision and ease it was as if she were pitching throwing stars- they all smoothly glided through the air and landed on the table at equal distances between each other. 

“Then let’s play,” Anansi magnanimously gestured for Baethan to make the first move, before she placed her hands underneath the table. 

Baethan’s hands hovered nervously over the cards for a few seconds before he scrunched his eyes shut, deciding to take the plunge as he aggressively flipped over two of them. He cringed as the pair came up mismatched- having turned up a four-petalled white lotus and an eleven-petalled yellow lotus- before he flipped them over again. 

Anansi hummed thoughtfully, tapping at her chin with a finger before she picked a card. 

“Well, just my luck! A four-petalled white lotus!” Anansi’s green eyes gleamed as she saw the image on her chosen card. “Now, where was the other one again?” 

Baethan dabbed the sweat pooling at his forehead as one of Amore’s hands drifting around the table. She stopped abruptly at one of the cards, before confidently reaching for it. Baethan let out a moan as the first card’s twin showed its face. 

The woman was sure of it now. 

“You’re cheating.” 

The cloaked woman didn’t so much as bat an eyelash as Baethan fell out of his seat in surprise, having not noticed until now that she had left her table to stand beside him. The woman kept her gaze steadily trained on Anansi. 

Anansi, to her credit, only took a second to recover from the accusation. She breezily laughed, waving her hands dismissively. 

“That’s ridiculous,” Anansi said. “We’re just enjoying a good, clean game of Lotus Pairs. Why don’t you take a seat and join us friend?” 

The hooded woman’s eyes flickered towards the mountain of pouches filled with coins on the floor beside Anansi’s chair. 

“How much have you lost?” 

It took Baethan a moment to realise that the woman was speaking to him as her gaze hadn’t moved from Anansi. 

“Um, around 40 rubees-oh!” 

Baethan started as the woman slapped around double that amount into his hands. He looked up at her with uncertainty from his position on the floor. Not moving her head a single inch, the woman glanced down at him from the corner of her eye. 

“Go.” 

The man didn’t need to be told twice. Not questioning his sudden good fortune, he scrambled up from the ground. He almost tripped over the stairs as he hightailed away from the woman, afraid that she’d change her mind. 

“Oi! What the hell?!” Anansi protested, springing up to her feet and chummy facade completely cast away. “I was going to make a killing from that guy! Where do you get off, claiming that I’m cheating?!” 

The woman was nonplussed as Anansi grabbed her by the collar of her cloak, which only served to incense the gambler further. 

“You kept a hand underneath the table during the game,” the woman said calmly, making no move to detach herself from Anansi’s grasp. “The placement of the cards were also skewed to your side. This allowed you to reach the cards from underneath the table to use your affinity more easily. Some sort of x-ray vision, perhaps?” 

All the colour rushed out of Anansi’s face 

“The glow from your affinity’s glyph was visible from the first floor during your prior game,” the woman continued. “You used your affinity again when trying to locate the four-petalled white lotus card that your opponent chose. You couldn’t remember where it was, even though he had just flipped it over moments prior.” 

While the words were cutting, her tone was not. There wasn’t a hint of malice, of ridicule, of contempt- of any emotion at all. 

It was simply, the truth. 

Anansi roared, clenching her free hand into a fist before barreling it towards the woman’s nose. The woman swiftly turned her face, and the fist went rushing past, punching nothing but air as Anansi stumbled forward from the lack of impact. Because Anansi still had a grip on it, the cloak tore off the woman’s body in tandem with her fall. 

Anansi blinked. The woman’s long hair was twisting up into a high ponytail which was held up by a long, teal hair tie in the shape of a tube before it fell down her back like a straight silver curtain that ended at her tailbone. Her locks shimmered like sparkles against her infamous white military uniform, its lapels lined with the colour of the woman’s eyes. 

“Orionese scum,” Anansi’s face contorted in disgust after her initial surprise. “How dare you!” 

Anansi charged at the woman, even more enraged than before. She didn’t appear to have a specific attack in mind- her anger effectively shrouding her judgement as she blindly flung her fists and legs at the woman with no rhyme or reason at all. The Orionese woman dodged Anansi with minimal effort, quietly grateful that she had left her sword with Iris and Felix- Anansi would’ve definitely hurt herself by accidently aiming a fist at it. 

“Don’t you two break anything,” came an exasperated warning from downstairs. “I can’t afford to fix up this place, you know.” 

The woman turned her head towards the only window on the second floor, not even looking at Anansi now as she weaved in and out of her flurry of strikes. The sun was almost completely obscured by the far-off mountains and the beginnings of night were settling over Paledia as dark purples started to mix with the oranges and pinks in the sky overhead. 

It was time for her to go. 

The woman caught the fist flying towards her face, and before Anansi could react, she had placed her free hand on the scammer’s stomach and flipped her over onto her back. Anansi blinked furiously, trying to break out of the daze clouding her mind after her head had been forcibly rammed into the floor. 

The woman turned to walk away. 

“Hey!” Anansi croaked, getting to her knees despite her legs feeling like jelly. “Come back here! I’m not done with you yet!” 

A ball of white flames materialised in her cupped palm as Princess Odette of Orion looked down at the woman impassively from over her shoulder. 

“We are done,” she said, as Anansi sank to the floor again, backing down upon seeing the display of power. “That is simply-” 

The truth.


End file.
